LAHORE: The ‘premature’ transfer of Sialkot District Police Officer Abdul Ghaffar Qaisrani and Deputy Commissioner Tahir Wattoo has caused some concern among the PSPs and the DMGs as they see it another attempt to hamper the process of depoliticising the state institutions.

Both the senior officials [who had been appointed in June this year] were made officials on special duty (OSDs) on Wednesday on the directions of the chief minister holding them responsible for ‘poor’ arrangements during his visit to Sialkot.

Inspector General of Punjab Police Amjad Javed Saleemi later replaced Mr Qaisrani with Rawalpindi SSP Investigation Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi the same day.

One of the major reasons behind the removal of the senior officers was said to be lack of coordination between the staff of the chief minister and the local police as well as the administration.

The officials at the CM Secretariat and the Central Police Office (CPO) shared some interesting facts behind the transfer of the officials some five months after their posting in Sialkot.

They said “unscheduled visit” of Chief Minister Usman Buzdar had upset the security circles in Sialkot after he suddenly decided to visit Dar House, the residence of senior PTI leader Usman Dar.

The officials said as per scheduled plan, the CM and the chief secretary were to reach Sialkot airport to fly for Lahore after the ground-breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor.

However, [suddenly] the local police officers received a message on wireless that the CM desired to visit Dar House, directing them to make emergency arrangements to clear the route.

The city police authorities immediately made [emergency] deployment issuing a security alert in the city, the officials said.

The cavalcade of the CM and other senior officers found some interruption on the route.

After a brief stay at Dar House, chief minister’s security staff again generated a wireless message about his next visit to the rest house which was located in the Cantonment area of the city.

This situation again baffled the local police authorities and they took extra time to make arrangements which later irked the CM.

An official said the CM conveyed his displeasure to the IGP and the chief secretary when he was apprised that the Sialkot DC remained constantly absent during his visit to the city.

Earlier to this development, the official said, the chief minister was already annoyed when he faced some issues while using the [official] helicopter.

After the Kartarpur Corridor event, he along with the CS went to the helipad to fly for Lahore and to his utter surprise he found the helicopter almost fully occupied by the Lahore-based political figures of the PTI.

Though the political leaders of the party, who were holding seats in the helicopter had offered the CM seats, he left the place in utter displeasure.

He said owing to some rift in PTI [Punjab], power politics between some bigwigs of the party prompted the chief minister to take some steps to ‘assert’ himself. He said IGP had been giving priority to Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar, who had [allegedly] paved way for Mr Saleemi to hold the top slot.

Similarly, it is said the chief secretary had a ‘soft corner’ for Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi for helping him (the CS) get the important position.

The official said it was the second incident of removal of the DPO, after the head of Pakpattan police Rizwan Gondal who was transferred on the order of the chief minister following the issue of stopping Khawar Maneka, the former husband of first lady Bushra Maneka.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2018